May 2 DIY Leather Luggage Tags

Handmade and heartfelt is what we go for And So To Wed and today’s blog post epitomises that: a DIY project that you can personalise to tell everyone exactly how much they mean to you. These DIY Leather Luggage Tags make the perfect personalised wedding gift for all those lustful wanderers about to embark on their honeymoon, a gorgeous thank you present for your tribe on the morning of the wedding, or even incredibly thoughtful favours for your lovely guests. They also require minimal effort but reap pretty maximum rewards, which makes them the best kind of DIY project: almost guaranteed success.

You’ll need

Leather (I used tan vegetable leather with a 4mm thickness. This is belt leather so eBay was full of cheap offcuts that were the perfect size for two tags; alternatively, if you’re making more, buy bigger sheets)

Leather thong, ribbon, or some kind of fabric to use as a tie

A craft knife

An alphabet stamp set (again, I got mine on eBay)

A pencil

A screwdriver (optional)

I am genuinely not exaggerating when I say this project requires fairly minimal effort!

What do I need to do?

1. Draw the outline of your tags on the back of the leather, the suede-y side. The rectangular bits of mine were about 10cm long and just under 5cm wide, with the overall length a bit longer due to the point. Remember to leave a big enough point that you can affix a hole – otherwise it looks less like a luggage tag!

2. Cut the shape out. This requires layers and layers of scoring, and make sure your movements are fluid. Think one quick pull (but not too quick that you’re going to endanger anyone or yourself – SAFETY FIRST)

3. Draw your hole in pencil, directly in line with the point, but about a centimetre beneath it. Here is my hand to show you exactly how to do it (also I cut my finger about 4 minutes before I started this project, typically)

4. Cut that hole out. If you have a hole cutter, or some crazy industrial strength hole punch, then fab, because you should DEFINITELY use that. I had to make do with making the tiniest cut with a craft knife and then jimmying a multitude of screwdrivers in until I got it to the clean edge I wanted. You want a clean edge on both sides so that you can thread your tie through.

5. Stamp your message! The instructions to my alphabet stamp kit suggested I use a mallet but as one wasn’t readily available, I just used a normal hammer and just used one strong blow. Proceed with caution on this bit: make sure your letters are all in line if you want it to look perfect (I went for a slightly more uneven typewriter look), make sure you don’t move your position even slightly once you’ve made an indent, and puhleeeeeeease make sure your letter is the correct way round so you’re not embossing anything back to front!

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that the names I used have the same last name as my boyfriend – these formed part of our gift to his brother and sister-in-law who got married in April. We teamed them with a beautiful bespoke Suzanne Oddy luggage tag print, to represent the important places that have been the foundations of their relationship so far and all the exciting things they’ve got to come. So it fit in really well with the travel theme before they jetted off to Sri Lanka and Dubai on honey moon! However, you could write whatever you wanted on these tags, so long as you leave yourself enough space. Why not “Ticket to Cloud 9”, “Adventures Await”, “Forever My Candid Partner”, “To The Moon and Back” (or a cheeky “Mile High Club”)?